This Blog was created to chronicle our travels in Mexico but has since morphed into something else entirely. Our periodic Mexico travels are still in here but if that is why you came here, you will have to dig a little to get to it. Try searching the Blog Archive in the right hand column.

Monday, July 24, 2017

Not So Friendly Skies

When our friends Roly and Cristy flew from their home in Cuba to Victoria, BC they were anxious to try "First World" cuisine as soon as possible. To this end, they boarded their Air Canada flight on empty stomachs, knowing they could buy food on board. Well, they perused the menu, made their selections and ordered only to discover they could not be served!

Why? Because Air Canada accepts only credit cards for payment of food and drink, not lowly cash! And like most or all good Cubans, our friends do not have a credit card. Cuba being a "cash society" and all.

So here they were starving on a plane not scheduled to land for another nine hours! What to do? Well, they found a seatmate willing to pay for their food with his capitalist inspired credit card and they would reimburse him with their nice fresh Canadian cash! Problem solved and they had met the first helpful Canadian of their trip!

5 comments:

My goodness, Croft. My rule has always been that I do not criticize our Canadian friends and country to the north; you guys have done so much for the US even when we were dead wrong about certain things. But, in this case, I have to say that Air Canada is Canada's "national" airline which at one time was wholly owned by Canada, now private with Canada holding a fractional financial interest. I've never thought of it as one of the discount and "no frills" airlines flying around North America and Europe. My point is, when did Air Canada stop providing free meals and beverages on nine-hour flights? We have always purchased alcoholic beverages but never food and drinks on flights that long. Personally, we don't eat airline food; instead, we purchase sandwiches and bottled water in the airport food court and put them in an insulated bag after we pass security.

What a nice gesture on the part of another passenger to help out Roly and Cristy. In today's mad world, it is nice to know there are still kind and generous people. We should all "pay it forward" as we never know when we may need help from a kind person.

If they are flying home from Toronto, they might think about carrying some tasty food on board instead of eating awful microwaved airline food. I once asked a guy how he was going to get a long pepperoni sausage through Customs after we landed; he said don't worry, it will be gone before we get there (I'm glad I wasn't sitting next to him in the event of indigestion!).

Funny in Mexico they would not take our cash/pesos at the resort but they accepted our credit cards. The staff was not allowed to handle cash. Not that I will be traveling to Cuba but it's still good to know.